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Venezuela

Deadly Post-Election Violence In Venezuela, As Maduro Blames CIA

CLARIN, LA CAPITAL (Argentina); 20 MINUTOS (Spain); TELESUR (Venezuela); REUTERS

Worldcrunch

CARACAS - Unrest after Sunday’s Venezuelan elections has left at least seven dead and more than 60 injured, with president-elect Nicolas Maduro and his opponent Henrique Capriles each blaming the other for provoking the escalating violence. Maduro, speaking early Wednesday, also blamed the CIA for inciting the unrest.

Two of the victims were shot dead by opposition supporters during a celebration of Maduro’s win in the capital and, in a separate incident, a 24 year-old man was killed in an attack on a government-run clinic, Reuters reports. Officials said more than 170 people had been arrested; while among the injured was a woman whom protesters tried to burn alive.

The protests began Sunday night, when Capriles called for the people to show their discontent by holding cazerolazo protests -- banging pots and pans to make noise. This quickly escalated with riot police firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowds to control them.

According to Clarin, Capriles accused Maduro of ordering the attacks with the aim of avoiding a recount of votes. But on Tuesday night, Capriles called for an end to the protests scheduled for Wednesday, with the aim of avoiding the escalating violence.

Maduro, who'd served as vice-president to Hugo Chavez, declared early Wednesday that the opposition was conspiring to make the public believe that is the government was behind all of the violence, reports TeleSur. The possibility of legal action against Capriles has been called for by some senior government officials, accusing him of beginning to incite a coup.

On Tuesday, Washington said it would not recognize Maduro’s government as legitimate until a full recount of the vote.

Later, Maduro accused the U.S. -- more specifically, the CIA -- of financing and orchestrating the protests, writes Spanish 20 Minutos, calling them “the historic enemy of the people.

“The CIA finance them the violent protestors and now they’re planning electrical sabotage,” he claimed, revealing the “plan” to leave Venezuela without light.

Capriles has said that should anything happen to him, he holds Maduro responsible, reiterating it via Twitter Tuesday night.

Cualquier cosa que me pase en la Residencia Oficial en los Teques hago responsable a Nicolás Maduro!

— Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) April 17, 2013

The tension in Venezuela has transferred to the financial markets, but the main source of income for the country -- the state-owned oil company PDVSA -- remained stable, reports La Capital.

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Geopolitics

Are Iran And The Taliban Colluding In The Drug Trafficking Business?

Iran is reacting mildly to recurring Taliban provocations on its frontier. Is this due to diplomatic weakness, policy incompetence or is there some murky complicity inside Iran with the Afghan drug trade?

Image of Afghan men consuming drugs on a street in Kabul.

Afghan men consume drugs on a street in Kabul.

Hamed Mohamed Gazouillement

-Analysis-

After about a week-long exchange of fire between Taliban forces and Iranian border guards (at or near Sasuli in eastern Iran) and in spite of Iranian authorities claiming the "misunderstanding" had been resolved and peace restored at the frontier, late on May 30, the Taliban were reportedly moving guns and armored troop carriers to the frontier district of Islam Qala, in northwestern Afghanistan.

On social media, the Taliban have been posting boastful videos, with one showing fighters on an armored vehicle cheering the prospect of a war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Another video shows a Taliban commander, Abdul Hamid Khurasani, warning Iranian authorities not to test the Taliban's strength, telling them "we're the real Muslims because behind the scenes, you're with the West." If Afghanistan's rulers were to order it, he warned, "God willing we shall soon conquer Iran."

On the Iranian side, while a lot of the Iranian materialis aged if not outdated, and even with the rock-bottom morale and discontent likely affecting Iranian troops, they would still need barely a day, using whatever is left from the Shah's army, to destroy the vehicles the Taliban have moved to the frontier. Iranian plane and helicopter pilots might even destroy them as target practice, though the real concern here remains the regime's inability to resolve a dispute.

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